― Grand (grand), Monday, 1 May 2006 11:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 1 May 2006 11:33 (eighteen years ago) link
CLASSICK, CLASSIQUE, PURE CLASS
Also, amazingly after all these years I'm still not the slightest bit tired of Rickie Lee's mantras. "they ran on forever...."
― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 1 May 2006 11:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Monday, 1 May 2006 11:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― ehbenoit, Monday, 1 May 2006 12:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 1 May 2006 12:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Omar (Omar), Monday, 1 May 2006 12:11 (eighteen years ago) link
one of the things i most like about the orb is that they have a very good sense of humor and timing that so many other "ambient, new age, etc" type artists don't. i've never had the sense that they took it all too seriously, yet they still managed to create some very serious music.
― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 1 May 2006 12:19 (eighteen years ago) link
(FYI - having heard both, tower of dub on CD is NOWHERE NEAR as awesome as tower of dub on vinyl. so much louder and deeper on vinyl. just so you know.)
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 1 May 2006 12:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 1 May 2006 14:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Treblekicker (treblekicker), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:38 (eighteen years ago) link
That is all this record needs. I could listen to it for 72 days.
And the rest... classic!
BTW, it took me 10 years or so to realize that the samples saying "Hello you're on the air" and "I've been waiting for music like this all my life" are taken from a Sex Pistols radio interview on the Some Product album
Which of course makes this even more classic. Disc 1 is maybe the best comedown record ever made.
― sleeve (sleeve), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Monday, 1 May 2006 18:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― mike h. (mike h.), Monday, 1 May 2006 18:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 1 May 2006 19:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Petroski (petroski), Monday, 1 May 2006 23:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 1 May 2006 23:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― andrew b (klik99), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 17:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 18:18 (eighteen years ago) link
i'm not just being contrary but i think it's the worst thing about the album, really very jarring. i can't see the point in mocking a security guard for not knowing who haile selassie is but i wouldn't mind so much if it was funny. i just don't see where the humour lies.
― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Telephonething (Telephonething), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 02:12 (eighteen years ago) link
"Little Fluffy Clouds" and "Perpetual Dawn" are classic though.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 05:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― dave q (listerine), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 07:12 (eighteen years ago) link
I like Ultraworld better than U.F.Orb.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 07:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Teh HoBBler (the pirate king), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 07:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 07:45 (eighteen years ago) link
OK then. I had this, as well as "UFOrb". I really wanted to like them, listened to them loads of times but in the end I had to give up. When it wasn't boring it was annoying.
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 07:53 (eighteen years ago) link
Track down the Aubrey Mixes CD then - good stuff on there, including a track that has one of the biggest bass booms I've ever heard - I've used it to test potential new stereos.
― Treblekicker (treblekicker), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 08:15 (eighteen years ago) link
That is my top tip for today.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 08:28 (eighteen years ago) link
The humour lies partly in the guilelessness of the security guard (guilelessness links to farce) but also in both characters' voices saying things like "Babylon and ting" - the whole notion of saying phrases like that in accents not usually associated with them resulting in classic comedic trope of juxtaposition. This was presumably still quite a fresh thing to do in 1992!
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 08:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 08:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 08:54 (eighteen years ago) link
It didn't destroy the whole floating cosmic new age ambient chill-out feel of "Little Fluffy Clouds", which did have drums almost all the way through.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 11:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 11:31 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm sure I remember a vocal sample on Star 6& 7,8,9, i think, about "a young man with stars in his eyes" that wasn't there this time round. Were there different versions of that song?
― Jamie T Smith (Jamie T Smith), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 11:36 (eighteen years ago) link
Also, I always though the vocal sample from Star 6 & 7, 8, 9 sounded like Dirty Den off Eastenders. Anyone know if this is true?
― Treblekicker (treblekicker), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 11:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 17:00 (eighteen years ago) link
In which case, "Perpetual Dawn" sounds just as out of place. I find the rest of the album a bit too cosmic, which is why I prefer "U.F. Orb" (and "Orblivion", which is a wonderful but sadly slightly underrated album)
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 17:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 17:30 (eighteen years ago) link
The edited, 70-minute North American version is no travesty either, in large part because of the version of "Star 6& 7 8 9" that is better than the much longer version on the proper 2CD album. But it leaves off the best part of the album, that being the supreme dream state known as "Spanish Castles In Space".
― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 19:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 19:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― hank (hank s), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 19:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 20:28 (eighteen years ago) link
Description1 Little Fluffy Clouds 2 Earth (Gaia) 3 Supernova At The End Of The Universe 4 Back Side Of The Moon 5 Spanish Castles In Space 1 Perpetual Dawn 2 Into The Fourth Dimension 3 Outlands 4 Star 6 And 7 8 9 5 Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre live mix mk10 1 Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre John Peel session 1989 2 Perpetual Dawn Ultrabass II remix 3 Little Fluffy Clouds Pal Joey's cumulo nimbus mix 4 Back Side Of The Moon Steve Hillage's under water deep space remix 5 Outlands Ready Made's fountains of Elisha mix 6 Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Jimi Cauty & Dr Alex Paterson's Aubrey mix mk 11 7 Spanish Castles In Space Youth extended mix 3CD
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Makrugaik (makrugaik), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:38 (seventeen years ago) link
3 Little Fluffy Clouds Pal Joey's cumulo nimbus mix^^finest track. have been playing the third disc of the deluxe edition a fair bit lately.
― self-fufilling rofflecy (haitch), Wednesday, 19 August 2009 02:21 (fourteen years ago) link
In July 1990, to the traditional sounds of an English summer – the droning of lawnmowers, the thwack of leather on willow – was added a *new* noise…
Happy 20th birthday, Little Fluffy Clouds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Ta0Nu-i-Q
― Born too beguiled (DavidM), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 15:28 (thirteen years ago) link
I prob said this upthread but "Hello you're on the air" and "I’ve been waiting for music like this all my life” are both samples from a Sex Pistols radio interview on the Some Product LP
― sleeve, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 01:03 (two years ago) link
and yeah, ultra classic album in the 2CD form
― sleeve, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 01:04 (two years ago) link
hmm, Ultraworld without "Little Fluffy Clouds" sounds like an incomplete journey, I need that upward gaze to process the rest
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Tuesday, 27 July 2021 03:49 (two years ago) link
Yeah the song is amazing and perfectly placed. A little time on Earth before we blast off into the increasingly formless territory of space. Love this album, it's such a journey
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 03:59 (two years ago) link
yeah its still so unique and timeless. I love so much of what The Orb did after but this one is still in its own league; had they broken up right after they'd still be held in about the same esteem
― frogbs, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 04:14 (two years ago) link
i am having a v belated orb phase (though i have heard this album a few times over the past two decades) and that sentiment strikes me as otm. there are many great debut albums but this one is kind of peerless, a(n) (ultra)world unto itself
having said that my fave so far is either terrarum or live 93
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Tuesday, 27 July 2021 14:10 (two years ago) link
yea Terrarum and Orblivion are probably my favorites. Ultraworld is great but it does have some sections I don't really like - "Outlands" is kinda dinky for instance
their recent work is quite good too. COW (Chill Out, World) and Abolition are nearly as good as their classic albums in my view
― frogbs, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 14:46 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKxTuz3NA48
this is a banger imo
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Tuesday, 27 July 2021 14:58 (two years ago) link
Yeah Terrarum and Orblivion are both excellent too, in pretty different ways. the sound design on those albums definitely bests Ultraworld, as much as I love the album. One funny parallel between this band and the similarly named Orbital: their 90's runs are so wonderful that I've never properly checked out the albums past that
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 15:21 (two years ago) link
Abolition is really surprisingly good
― lukas, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 17:18 (two years ago) link
Several of their recent albums are great. Chill Out World was really good and the Chocolate Hills LP was great.
Felt like Alex's ego came through in the Kris Needs bio though. Ended up not liking him as much after finishing the book.
― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 18:12 (two years ago) link
I'll start with Chill Out World, I've never heard that one at all
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 23:05 (two years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:57 (two years ago) link
Didn't it come out ages ago, or is this a volume two?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 21:46 (two years ago) link
Book came out within the last 12 months.
― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 22:07 (two years ago) link
Huh. I thought I had preordered a new book that's coming out in two months.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 23:19 (two years ago) link
missed Chocolate Hills, loving this
― lukas, Thursday, 29 July 2021 02:47 (two years ago) link
The book i'm referring to is called Babble On An' Ting. I purchased it in a bundle with the excellent Sedibus album Alex did with Andy Falconer, so maybe it has a different release date outside of the bundle from the Orb site. The Sedibus album is even better than Chocolate Hills, imo. https://www.discogs.com/Sedibus-The-Heavens/master/2147695
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 29 July 2021 04:27 (two years ago) link
Check it out here. https://sedibus.tmstor.es/products
The vinyl looks to be sold out on this site but the CD, bonus rarities CD, and book is still available.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 29 July 2021 04:29 (two years ago) link
Ah, I thought you were meaning the Kris Needs Autobio.
― Mark G, Thursday, 29 July 2021 05:49 (two years ago) link
I think we’re all talking about the same thing? Kris Needs wrote Babble On An’ Ting. Looks like this isn’t out in the States yet.
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 29 July 2021 14:55 (two years ago) link
No, Mark is talking about Needs Must, Kris Needs' autobiography from 1999; not his biography of Dr LX Paterson from May 2021.
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Thursday, 29 July 2021 15:27 (two years ago) link
The Sedibus album is even better than Chocolate Hills, imo.
oh Monsieur Fopp you are spoiling us etc etc
― lukas, Thursday, 29 July 2021 15:31 (two years ago) link
Has anyone seen Lunar Orbit, the documentary from a few years ago? It includes footage of them making Moonbuilding 2703 AD, the last record they’ve made for Kompakt. Going through a bit of an Orb thing of late and interested in the Kris Needs biography. It all sent me back to the Kompakt stuff I reviewed for Stylus back in the day. The version of Lunik on Komplott with the “Singin’ in the Rain” sample remains a career highlight.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 8 August 2021 01:07 (two years ago) link
(Wait, not the last thing they did on Kompakt – but the first they’d done in a while)
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 8 August 2021 01:09 (two years ago) link
Give me Kris Weston's book now
COW is an incredibly great album surrounded largely by drivel. The Alpine EP being a massive exceptiom
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 8 August 2021 01:17 (two years ago) link
n?
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 8 August 2021 01:18 (two years ago) link
Abolition & Moonbuilding are both pretty good, I think.
imo all the Orb proper albums have a few great tracks...outside of some of the collaborative stuff I don't think anything they've done has been outright bad.
― frogbs, Sunday, 8 August 2021 03:36 (two years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 8 August 2021 05:08 (two years ago) link
(I’m assuming this story is bunk but it’s certainly on brand)
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 8 August 2021 13:47 (two years ago) link
Well, you know if you drop off asleep then wake suddenly, it can seem like half an hour whereas it's really been 3 minutes..
― Mark G, Sunday, 8 August 2021 21:53 (two years ago) link
the orb is ultimate time dilation music
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Sunday, 8 August 2021 22:18 (two years ago) link
There was a great Q&A with Kris Weston a while ago on Gearslutz forum. Lots of info about how they recorded the albums and (a fair bit of airing of dirty Orb laundry tbf). Its deleted now but lives on in the wayback machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140729193514/http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/871685-q-kris-weston.html
― (the one with 3 L's) (Willl), Sunday, 8 August 2021 22:41 (two years ago) link
That’s a pretty incredible interview – there’s even some shade thrown Kris Needs’ way. Even if you assume Kris was super salty (and clearly depressed) about how things went down with Paterson, it pretty clear LX has always relied on having a more traditional musician to collaborate with. Cauty —>Weston—>Fehlmann. Does the web archive have a way of you accessing the other pages of the discussion? I have some of these pages archived on Evernote but not all of them.
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 9 August 2021 23:13 (two years ago) link
I dicked around a bit but couldn’t trick it into showing me past page 1
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 01:54 (two years ago) link
Weston aired a lot of that on his personal webpage too. for better or worse it's offline now. while I've no doubt some unseemly things happened during the early era of the band I've started to suspect the man is full of shit. like sure man I believe that you and you alone were the sole creative genius behind The Orb when you also happen to be the one member who's done exactly nada in the last 25 years
― frogbs, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 02:56 (two years ago) link
ouch, tough but fair
― sleeve, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 03:25 (two years ago) link
He’s clearly otm that LX has no technical or musical ability to speak of. He just stays bitter about it, instead of observing that the good doctor’s incredible gift is in getting anyone that he’s around to write and produce music that sounds like The Orb, rather than whatever they do on their own. If he accepted that this alchemy resulted in hours of music that he’s still proud of, perhaps he could have kept pissing off when he got frustrated, then coming back for an album or three every time he got over it, the way Fehlmann and Youth dip in and out at their own paces.
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 04:23 (two years ago) link
right - even listening to his DJ sets I'm kind of struck by how much he fucks up. but his taste is often impeccable.
fwiw I don't think Weston is just making shit up, when he talks about gear it's clear he knows what he's talking about. that said every time I read his ranting I always wonder what the other side of the story is. it's always shit like "I did everything, all the good ideas were my ideas, everything that got messed up was someone else's fault, I tried to fix it but they were so jealous of my talent that they wouldn't let me touch anything". it reminds me of the Mike Doughty book where he spends half the pages trashing Soul Coughing, saying he hates all the music because it was ruined by his bandmates while at the same time being desperate to take credit for all of it. then when he made his own album of Soul Coughing songs "as he originally intended them" it fucking sucked. But at least he's still making something!
― frogbs, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 04:45 (two years ago) link
Weston is obviously talented but his almost total lack output since leaving the Orb speaks to what I imagine is a somewhat toxic personality fed at least in part by what seems to be clinical depression. No matter how you slice it, it’s sad.By contrast, Alex almost certainty has an ego and based on the fact that his first two collaborators both departed levying the same criticism—that he wanted more credit than his contributions warranted—it’s probably somewhat outsized relative to his actual musical ability. And yet, 30 years later this stoner dude’s music continues to provide me with comfort, laughs and inspiration. That’s likely because, whatever his own merits are as a “proper musician,” Alex has always had a very clear-eyed view of what the Orb is and should be. Nowhere is that clearer than on this thread’s namesake, Ultraworld which has by my count over a dozen writers (even if you exclude the artists credited for their samples). Since that time, he’s weaved and bobbed from acid house and dub to clickety clackety microhouse to dub and pure ambient with very little friction – in some cases within a single track. He’s consistently chosen his collaborators well and maintained most of those relationships (perhaps less consistently) over decades. As a result, no matter how transparently they wear their influences on their sleeves and influential the Orb has been in their own right, every record still sounds like pretty much no one else. It’s honestly incredible.
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 02:53 (two years ago) link
Patterson won me over for good by sticking two Longmont Potion Castle samples on two different Orb records
― frogbs, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 03:00 (two years ago) link
OK ya gotta be more specific there!
― sleeve, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 03:30 (two years ago) link
"Rolo" on Okie Dokie opens with an LPC sample ("can you repeat the word Rolo?")
there's also a track on The Dream that uses the "would it be permissible for me to maneuver your donuts?" call. I don't remember which track it is though. I would guess it's "Beautiful Day"
funny these are two consecutive albums so I guess we know when his LPC phase was
― frogbs, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 04:05 (two years ago) link
I'm about halfway through "Babylon and Ting" and loving it. I'm not quite at the point where the post-U.F.Orb comedown begins and, I assume, Weston goes off the rails. But it's been a joy thus far -- with Needs really doing a bang up job of bringing so many threads together. I was initially a bit skeptical given his friendship with LX, but all told it really embosses the whole thing in a delightfully warm glow which feels appropriate.
Plus, this excellent playlist companion has been keeping me going: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0GHeWVveiTf7rOExtHUMqD?si=3e2891cb0d1042e5
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 6 December 2021 17:06 (two years ago) link
(a mere 44 hours of supplementary listening!)
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 6 December 2021 17:24 (two years ago) link
going to see The Orb play this album and UFOrb tomorrow. will it be good? dunno but should be fun because going with a big group of people
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 1 December 2023 13:30 (five months ago) link
it was in fact good.
venue could've published the fucking stage times though, we got there at 7:45 and the Orb were already on stage.
it was fine, we were all suitably chemically refreshed and they played Little Fluffy Clouds at the end.
― Colonel Poo, Sunday, 3 December 2023 07:51 (five months ago) link
Nice, didn't know they were doing this. Did any particular track feel like a highlight? Could've added 'Assassin' in there.. setlist.fm seems to suggest they didn't play every UF Orb track at other venues than Brighton's or maybe contributors were too refreshed to remember :)
― nashwan, Sunday, 3 December 2023 13:19 (five months ago) link
sounds like a great night.have always wondered why it is so impossible to get stage times from venues, swear this used to be googleable info
― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 3 December 2023 19:31 (five months ago) link
Yeah I saw them play this album back in 2017, I figured it'd be two people on stage, it was maybe six? Such a good time.
― what you say is true but by no means (lukas), Monday, 4 December 2023 01:19 (five months ago) link